Mystery surrounds Khawaja swan song after coach’s telling answer to retirement question

Usman Khawaja has been tight-lipped about his Test future, but it appears increasingly likely that this week’s New Year’s Ashes contest in Sydney will be his final appearance in Australian colours.

Courtesy of diminishing returns in the Test arena, along with lingering concerns about his fitness and susceptibility to quality fast bowling, an international swansong at the SCG remains firmly on the cards for the 39-year-old, who has played 87 Tests since making his debut at the same venue 15 years ago.

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It only seems appropriate that Khawaja gets the chance to farewell Australian fans in Sydney; he started his domestic career at New South Wales, playing five seasons at the Blues before migrating to Queensland in 2012.

The SCG has already hosted multiple high-profile farewells this century – Steve Waugh in 2004, Shane Warne in 2007, David Warner in 2024 – and Khawaja would be warmly received by the Sydney crowd if he announces his retirement this week.

“It’d be a special way for him to go out,” former Australian fast bowler Brett Lee told reporters this week.

“Home ground, a chance to win 4-1.

“But we’ll wait and see in a couple of days.”

It was during the 2022 New Year’s Test in Sydney that Khawaja revived his Test career; a Covid-19 infection for teammate Travis Head opened the door for his unexpected return to Australia’s Test side following a three-year hiatus, and he didn’t waste the opportunity, cracking twin hundreds in a drawn contest against England.

Khawaja, along with many others, believed his Test career was over following his 2019 axing; he had been dropped from the national side on seven occasions already, perpetually chopped and changed out of the team, and despite flashes of brilliance in the baggy green, he struggled to cement his spot in the starting XI for over a decade.

But the 2021/22 proved a turning point in his career; after reinventing himself as an opener, Khawaja compiled 2290 runs at 58.71 across the next two years, earning Test Player of the Year honours at the 2023 Australian Cricket Awards. He had become Australia’s most reliable and consistent performer with the bat.

However, a recent dip in form fuelled speculation about his Test future, an inevitability for cricketers at his age. Batting averages for openers have plummeted globally over the past couple of years, and the ongoing trend towards seam-friendly decks has seen Khawaja average 27.52 in home matches since the start of last year.

Dismissed cheaply during last month’s Ashes series opener, the left-hander missed the pink-ball contest in Brisbane due to a back injury before he was dropped for the recent Adelaide Test in Adelaide, with Head taking his spot at the top of the order.

But in a moment of deja vu, Steve Smith’s vestibular illness offered Khawaja another career lifeline, with the Queenslander contributing valuable runs in both innings at Adelaide Oval to help Australia retain the coveted Ashes urn.

Khawaja’s apparent susceptibility to fast bowling from around the wicket, a problem that has plagued him since the start of this year’s Test tour of the Caribbean, reared its head during the frantic two-day shootout at the MCG.

While there wasn’t much he could have done about his first-innings dismissal, feathering a peach from England seamer Gus Atkinson through to the wicketkeeper, Khawaja departed for a second-ball duck on day two after top-edging a short ball towards deep fine leg. He was also dismissed cheaply by a bumper in his lone knock during the Ashes opener at Perth Stadium.

Averaging 21.23 since the start of June’s World Test Championship final, Khawaja’s future in the Test side is once again under the microscope. While serving as opener, his spot wasn’t under threat due to the lack of alternatives at the top of the order, but Australia has a plethora of middle-order options at their disposal, including but not limited to reserve wicketkeeper Josh Inglis, all-rounder Beau Webster, Queensland’s Matthew Renshaw and South Australia’s Nathan McSweeney.

With Smith also approaching the twilight of his Test career, the national selectors will no doubt be eager to start blooding the next generation of Australian batters, including all-rounder Cooper Connolly and Victorian duo Harry Dixon and Ollie Peake.

If he continues playing through to next summer, Khawaja’s fitness will be tested during a frantic ten-month window during which Australia is scheduled to play at least 18 Tests, while the back spasm debacle in Perth demonstrated how his ageing body could jeopardise the national side moving forward.

Khawaja is already Australia’s oldest Test cricketer in 39 years. If selected next summer, he’ll become the oldest since Bob Simpson came out of retirement to lead the country during the World Series Cricket fiasco.

Following next week’s New Year’s contest in Sydney, Australia doesn’t have another Test match scheduled until August. Should Khawaja have ambitions of extending his career, the question becomes whether the national selectors respect his wishes or encourage him to hang up the boots.

He may not get the luxury of deciding which Test will be his last. A fairytale farewell at his favourite ground would be a decent choice.

With four rounds of Sheffield Shield action remaining this summer, Khawaja has, at most, ten chances to press his case for selection in Australia’s next Test assignment, a two-match series against Bangladesh in Darwin and Mackay.

Speaking to reporters at the MCG on Monday, Australian coach Andrew McDonald reiterated that Khawaja was yet to make a call on his Test future, guaranteeing his selection for the Ashes finale because “his performance in this calendar year has been good enough”.

“We haven’t had a conversation, the speculation has been from the external,” he said.

“We’re always having conversations about where players are at and speaking directly to the players, but there’s no indication at my end that he’s calling it in Sydney.

“He will come to us if he’s going to retire, there’s no doubt about that.”

However, asked whether the timing of his retirement would be solely Khawaja’s decision, McDonald hesitated. He insinuated the national selectors would need to make some tough decisions should Khawaja choose to continue beyond the Sydney Test.

“After this Test match, we’ve got eight months until the next one, so we’ve got a lot of time as a selection group to make that decision,” McDonald responded.

“If there was a series at the back-end of this, it would be a little bit different, but with the eight-month gap, as a selection panel we’ve got a lot of time to think about our next Test team should Usman push forward.

“That will be something we will discuss.”

Last week, ex-opening partner David Warner declared that Khawaja would need to have a “long think” about whether he can continue contributing to the Test side moving forward, while former Australian spinner Kerry O’Keeffe warned there would be a “pile-on” if he doesn’t step aside.

“We are a team in transition,” he told Fox Cricket this week.

“If he says, ‘I’m pushing on,’ then there’s going to be a pile-on. I mean, he’s given great service. He deserves a good farewell.

“I hope he announces that Sydney is my final Test, and it’ll be a big moment. The crowd will give him generous applause.

“It’s right that he does, now he’s taking up a middle-order spot. But there are challenges, aren’t there? There are young blokes that now we have got to … freshen up the team, and I’d rather do it in a winning series rather than a losing series.”

However, Khawaja has a wonderful knack of proving his sceptics wrong. It wasn’t long ago doubters claimed he couldn’t score runs in the subcontinent, or in the United Kingdom.

You can’t rule out of the possibility of him adding another chapter to his remarkable Test renaissance.

The fifth and final Ashes Test between Australia and England gets underway at the SCG on January 4.